afterward waited on us at table.

"I go to-morrow evening to Mr. Wickliffe's, Postmaster General, and,
probably, on Wednesday evening next to the President's. The new
President, Polk, arrived this evening amid the roar of cannon. He will be
inaugurated on the 4th of March, and I presume I shall be there.

"I am most anxiously waiting the action of Congress on the Telegraph. It
is exceedingly tantalizing to suffer so much loss of precious time that
cannot be recalled."

This time there was no eleventh-hour passage of the bill, for Congress
adjourned without reaching it, and while this, in the light of future
events, was undoubtedly a tactical error on the part of the Government,
it inured to the financial benefit of the inventor himself. The question
now arose of the best means of extending the business of the telegraph
through private companies, and Morse keenly felt the need of a better
business head than he possessed to guide the enterprise through the
shoals and quicksands of commerce. He was fortunate in choosing as his
business and legal adviser the Honorable Amos Kendall.

Mr. James D. Reid, one of the early telegraphers and a staunch and
faithful friend of Morse's, thus speaks of Mr. Kendall in his valuable
book "The Telegraph in America":--

"Mr. Kendall is too well known in American history to require
description. He was General Jackson's Postmaster General, incorruptible,
able, an educated lawyer, clear-headed, methodical, and ingenious. But he
was somewhat rigid in his manners and methods, and lacked the dash and
_bonhomie_ which would have carried him successfully into the business
centres of the seaboard cities, and brought capital largely and
cheerfully to his feet. Of personal magnetism, indeed, except in private
intercourse, where he was eminently delightful, he had, at this period of
his life, none. This made his work difficult, especially with railroad
men. Yet the Telegraph could not have been entrusted to more genuinely
honest and able hands. On the part of those he represented this
confidence was so complete that their interests were committed to him
without reserve."

Professor Gale and Alfred Vail joined with Morse in entrusting their
interests to Mr. Kendall's care, but F.O.J. Smith preferred to act for
himself. This caused much trouble in the future, for it was a foregone
conclusion that the honest, upright Kendall and the shifty Smith were
bound to come into conflict with each other. The